UFT Political Action

The UFT Political Action Department is the political arm of our union. With offices at UFT’s lower Manhattan headquarters and political action coordinators in each borough, we are active in a wide variety of political battles across the city in support of New York’s children and schools. These include community-oriented campaigns in support of our various community-based allies, legislative efforts to pass pro-public education legislation at City Hall, and electoral work to elect politicians, work to support those already in office as they fight for the rights of teachers and students, and pressure campaigns targeting those politicians who stand in the way of quality education and workers’ rights for all.

Work with the community is integral to our approach to political action at UFT. Electing politicians who fight for public education is extremely important, but we consider building relationships and coalitions with community partners equally significant. For this reason, we work closely with the union’s parent and community liaisons to support initiatives such as free student metro cards and immigration rights. See a list of our community partners.

Both local and state politics deeply affect the New York Citypublic school system. Indeed, some of the most important decisions that affect city parents, students and teachers are taken in the State Senate and Assembly in Albany. For this reason, we work to influence those decisions in collaboration with our statewide affiliate, the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). Past efforts have included fighting for more education funding in the state budget and better governance rules over city schools.

In all our work, our fundamental commitment is to quality public education for all of New York City’s children, workplace rights for all of the city’s educators, and social and economic justice for the communities in which our students live and educators serve. Political action – electing politicians who support children and schools, pressuring those who stand in the way and working side-by-side with our community allies – is critical to achieving these ends.

For more information or to get involved in political action, contact the department at (212) 598 7747. You can also reach your borough’s political action coordinator using the information below: